Competeing With a Ghost
by NCISgirl1527
Summary: Even with Stella gone, the members of the team still see her every where. How can Jo hope to compete with someone who is not even there? Lindsay thinks about Stella and Jo, and her own relationship with Aiden.


_**My first story since Stella left the show…It makes me sad because Stella was my very favorite character…But I like Jo (I actually tried to hate her and fail)… So this is Lindsay thinking about Jo and Stella, and herself and Aiden.**_

_**Disclaimer: I don't own anyone**_

_**Spoilers: The 34**__**th**__** Floor, Grand Murder at Central Station, Heroes.**_

Lindsay sighed and watched as Jo walked out of the office. She finally had the room to herself. It was not that she did not like Jo, because she did, there was just something about her that seemed wrong…

To say she did not know what it was would be a lie. Lindsay knew exactly why Jo seemed out of placed. The brown haired detective had many winning qualities and under any other circumstances the team would have welcomed her with open arms…

But they could not do that now…they could not do that because they were all still looking over their shoulders. They were all waiting for a certain curly haired detective to come home. So really Jo's biggest flaw was that she was not Stella

Lindsay sighed again. She knew it sounded cruel to consider Jo that way, but she could not help it. None of them could. They all watched Jo move through the lab thinking that she was not Stella. Every move she made caused whoever saw it to question what Stella would have done. It was like Stella's ghost was still present in the lab imposing its presence on everyone.

It was a hard road to walk; Lindsey knew that from experience. She knew that trying to adjust to a new place was only made harder if the people you were working with resented you for not being someone else. She had, after all, once been there too…

When Lindsay had arrived from Montana five years ago the lab had been almost the same as it was now. There were different faces, but the lab itself was give or take the same. The team was what changed and evolved, and five years ago it had suffered a crushing blow: the loss of Aiden Burn.

Lindsay had spent her first six months at the lab in another woman's world. She had done Aiden's jobs. She had world with Aiden's partner. She had signed reports on a line that should have displayed Aiden's name. All of those things belonged to Aiden, not to her…at least that was how the team saw it.

Not that any of them ever said that…no they were all polite to her and treated her with the respect they would treat anyone else with, but she could tell did not want her. They wanted their friend back, not some stranger who they barely knew, and every so often that resentment would show. Never in a big way though…

Each of the team members had their own little tendencies that reinforced Aiden's presence in the lab. At least once or twice a month Danny would start chuckling at something that Lindsay did not find any amusement in, and his explanation was almost always a story of something he and Aiden had done together. Hawkes had asked her at least twice if she could do a facial reconstruction from him. Flack kept starting to call her Aiden and having to change direction in mid-word.

Mac and Stella were different and a little more discrete. They were the first two to welcome Lindsay with open arms, and they continued to serve as her mentors. She knew they tried to be as open as possible to her, but from time to time she would catch a glance between the two of them. It was just glance, but Lindsay always had an impression that it was the two of them noting a difference between her and Aiden.

Eight months after her arrival, they found Aiden's burned body in a car. Lindsay squeezed her eyes together. It was a painful memory for her even though she had never known Aiden. She knew that her anguish was nothing compared to the others, but it had hurt her to watch her friends in so much pain.

There was also some small part of her that blamed herself. If Aiden had worked at the lab instead of her, then there was a chance that she might still be alive. Lindsay knew that Aiden staying had never been an option, but from the day they discovered her body a little voice in Lindsay's head had been asking 'What if?'"

After that two things happened. The first was Lindsay took on a feeling that she owed a debt to Aiden. It was her job to take care of the team that Aiden had left behind, and even now, five years later, Lindsey did her best to do that. The second was that all traces of remaining resentment dropped. There was no longer a chance that Aiden would be able with them again so in that knowledge the team was finally able to accept Lindsay completely.

Lindsay looked up at the ceiling and said a silent pray to God that that was not what it would take this time. That maybe the team could come to accept Jo in her own right even with Stella still alive out there.

So yes…she knew exactly what it felt like to have to work with people and know that they were always hoping to see someone else walking through the door. Lindsay knew that even now, even after the team came to terms with Aiden's death, that she was still present. Just as a Stella was still present…

The feeling of their presence, Lindsay had come to realize, was not something that would go away. It was something that everyone much come to terms with because as long as even one person in the lab remembered Aiden she would be there…as long as just one person remembered Stella she would be there…

Lindsay had made her peace with that a long time ago. Now it was Jo's turn. The first months would be the hardest, but Jo would make it through them more or less intact. After that everything at the crime lab would be easy.

Because despite the bodies, the blood, the tragedies, and the victims she would have to deal with every day:

Competing with a ghost was the hardest thing she would ever have to do.

**_Did you like it? I was actually rather proud of it even though it did not come out the way I had originally intended. Please Review._**

_**One last note: Stella leaving the show has in no way stopped me from being a Smacked fan so keep your eyes open for a Smacked story. There will be one coming soon. **_


End file.
